Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-02-03

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against the direct morning light on |
waking. How few people think of this,
or at least how few arrange their bed
roomsso as to provide for it! | have
slept and walked in good many differ
ent countries; but it is very seldom that |
/ have found the beds rightly placed in
this respect. As a rule, the morning
light glares into the sleeper's eyes on
waking. Perhaps this position of the
body at night is a survival of some
earlier time when the dangers of war,
or, later, the needs of agriculture, made
it necessary to awake with the earliest
light. But it need scarcclybe said that the
stress of the morning light is a trial to
the eyes, and one which they should be
spared when possible. The use of bed
curtains, still in Europe, but compara-
lively rare in our country, was intend
ed to guard the sleeper from this annoy
ance; but they cut off the air to such a
degree that they are very properly dis
used among us.
/ have referred to this rule as hard
one to follow, and indeed it may seem
to propose no less than revolutionary
measure in suggesting that the beds
which face the light should be turned
the other way Indeed it is always
feasible, and am the last person in the
world to urge any thing that should
bring confusion upon the housekeeper.
But one can sometimes make the bed,
and sleep in it, with the head turned
away from the light, even though the
stringent rules of housekeeping forbid
the moving of the bedstead itself. And
when the sleeper's head can not be
turned away, screen may be placed
between the bed and the window.
6. Don't read in bed. 1t is an indis-
cretion, to give it the mildest name. 1t
strains the eyes, it curtails the hours of
rest-and most of us do not sleep
enough-and once in while it.sets the
house a-fire. Bed is the place for sleep
before any thing else, and not primarily
the place for pursuing intellectual cult
ure.
II. COMING TO sPECTACLEs.
When l was boy l used to envy the
wearers of spectacles; they gave a sort
distinction, / thought, even to some
commonplace faces. remember that
| looked forward with certain expect
ancy to the time when in the order of
nature, should be promoted to the use
and enjoyment of glasses.
Well, am using them now, and not
with that unmixed delight that / ex-
pected in them. find that they make
me out older than l was; and l learn
that while augmenting years are sup
posed to bring wisdom, which is all
very well, that there are still certain
offsets to the value of augmenting
years. Perhaps one would just as soon
be ten years younger again, and avoid
some OF his mistakes, even if one had to
forego the dignity of spectacles; and
yet, when they are resorted to at the
right time, and properly chosen, what a
delight they are, what comfort! More
than this, they are one of the necessi-
ties of civilization. We could spare
steamboats, and railroads almost as soon
as spectacles. Imagine the stoppage of
work in almost every department of life
that would follow the suppression of
oculists and opticians!
Their services, on the contrary, are
constantly more and more in demand.
Many children are found in need of
them; in Germany seventeen per cent
out of ten thousand school children
were found to have trouble with their
eyes. By the age of forty at least half
of the people in our community require
to begin with weak glasses of one sort
or another, and how reluctantly they
often begin! People who would "make
no bones of wearing ear-trumpets or
crutches (because lameness and deafness
can not be hidden) will stoutly resist the
coming to spectacles. Nothing amuses
me more, in quiet way, than to OBJ
serve the reluctance, the coyness, the
backwardness with which my friends
defer their privilege, "dreading, tho
wishing, to be near il" and long put
ting off their comfort before they come
frankly to the luxury of glasses. Peo-
pie will put it off for two or three years,
and suffer all the time. One of my
friends is now going through the proc
ess. He has procured his glasses; on
occasions he brings them out in avery
quiet way; he puts them on almost
furtively, and how modestly and yet
speedily they slip off again and into a
specially-provided pocket! But they
: bring him back the clear sight of child
hood; he enjoys them, and really he
can not do without them for reading
fine print; and soon he will use them as
unreluctantly as his telephone.
How shall we select our glassesP We
have two classes of advisers in this
matter; their names are somewhat SINH.
: lar, but their functions are
/ widely different. we have the
oculist or ophthalmic surgeon, 8
trained specialist in all that con-
Germs the eve and its conditions Of
J health and of disease; and we have the
, optician, who may be more or less in
, formed in the science of the eye, bu
{ whose business is to sell glasses. Which
of the two shall we consult?
r The optician, in his business of selling
{ glasses, will often have picked up mor'
e than little knowledge of the ordinary
5 requirements of eyes that need his help
: Whether you need ''near-sighted'' y
D .far-sighted glass" whether a strong
| or a weak pair of lenses,-this he car
; ordinarily tell. But if the case is an,
thing out of the ordinary,-if it is
Q question of uneaual vision in the tw'
Q ewes, or of a stigmasism, or of troubl,
v with the optic nerve, or ct any one of
e score of complaints which though indi
: vidualiy uncommon, yet Constitute il
h the total no small part of the total per
e centage or chance of the ailments o
e the eye-then the oculist, not the opt
e clan, is the one to pronounce upon tn
e case. Here the optician is as likely Z
q 90 wrong as right; and mistake mad
r in such case may, and sometimes does
f result in serious injury. But who
h TO tell beforehand whether your owl
5 case, or your child's is perfectl
T. simple one-one for which YOU ma
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